Monday, September 12, 2011

That's the name of the game right now. With lots of kid love and an eat-whatever-the-heck-you-want diet, Olaf has gained some weight and given us lots of tail thumping, happy Berner grins.

I took photos of Olaf with the kids yesterday. It's hard to see him so skinny, but the spark is back in his eyes.

These past six years Olaf's watched our oldest

grow from boy to man.

He's seen two little girls

become beautiful young ladies.

And he's welcomed two dear children home from China.

We couldn't ask for any more of him.

The "keeping him happy" plan has been stepped up since we received the hard news today that Olaf does in fact have cancer. The specialists who reviewed his radiographs found a mass in his retroperitoneal cavity, with the liver and spleen "looking suspicious". They think it's either histiocystosis or lymphoma, both with the same prognosis. Right now he's comfortable and happy. We'll keep him that way as long as we can, but hopefully not a moment too long. That's the least we can do for a member of the family.

Oh, Eileen. I am so sad to hear he does indeed have cancer. I lost a Boxer to an aggressive brain tumor... it was heartbreaking.Glad that you have time together with Olaf feeling a bit more himself, I can only imagine how precious it is to the entire family.Sending big hugs!

Those are sweet photos of the kids with Olaf. It doesn't seem like that long ago that you were blogging about how your family chose the name Olaf. We're very sad to hear that he has Cancer. What a sweet dog he's been for your family. Our hearts go out to you guys.

Why Scravings?

The family vernacular for tidbits of food left on a plate after a meal, as in, "I'll give my scravings to Charlie," or "I CAN have dessert. This is just scravings." It seemed an appropriate word for the little morsels thrown out on our blog. Sometimes tasty, sometimes destined for the dog dish.